Europe will be consulted – but ultimately excluded – from the planned peace talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine, Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine has revealed.

Asked if Europe would be present at the planned talks, Keith Kellogg said he was from “the school of realism, and that is not going to happen”.

“It may be like chalk on the blackboard, it may grate a little bit, but I am telling you something that is really quite honest,” he said on Saturday.

“And to my European friends, I would say: get into the debate, not by complaining that you might, yes or no, be at the table, but by coming up with concrete proposals, ideas, ramp up [defence] spending.”

Kellogg’s remarks will cause consternation among some European leaders who do not trust Trump and believe their country’s security is inextricably interwoven with the fate of Ukraine. The Polish foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, said the French president, Emmanuel Macron, had invited European leaders to Paris on Sunday to discuss the situation.

Kellogg said one reason previous peace talks between Ukraine and Russia had failed was because of the involvement of too many countries that had no ability to execute any such process. “We are not going to get down that path,” he said on the margins of the Munich Security Conference.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had earlier used his speech to the conference to warn that Europe was likely to be excluded from the negotiations. He urged Europe to step up and form a European army in which Ukraine would play a central role.

European leaders, battered by the confrontational speech by the US vice-president, JD Vance, on Friday, are increasingly apprehensive about Trump’s approach to a Ukraine peace deal and fear an agreement may be struck that is advantageous to the US, but has long-term implications not just for the security of Ukraine, but for Europe.

The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said on social media: “Europe urgently needs its own plan of action concerning Ukraine and our security, or else other global players will decide about our future. Not necessarily in line with our own interest … This plan must be prepared now. There’s no time to lose.”

Kellogg said the critical issues were to ensure the war did not start again after a ceasefire and to determine how Ukraine retained its sovereignty. He said this would require a credible security guarantee, adding that Trump, as the sole decision-maker in the US, was not yet in a position to define such a guarantee.

He said: “Trump would need a full range of options”, and that “all options are on the table”. He said he was working on “Trump time”, adding he expected an agreement in weeks and months. A key issue was to agree how breaches of any ceasefire agreement were handled, he said.

Kellogg said he was working with his contacts in the Nato alliance while Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy, was in contact with the Russians.

Zelenskyy told Europe to avoid being abandoned at the negotiation table by Trump. “Let’s be honest – now we can’t rule out the possibility that America might say ‘no’ to Europe on issues that threaten it. Many leaders have talked about a Europe that needs its own military – an army of Europe. I believe that the time has come. The armed forces of Europe must be created.

“A few days ago, President Trump told me about his conversation with Putin. Not once did he mention that America needs Europe at that table. That says a lot. The old days are over – when America supported Europe just because it always had. Ukraine will never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement. And the same rule should apply to all of Europe. No decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine. No decisions about Europe without Europe.”

He added: “President Trump once said: ‘What matters is not the family you were born into, but the one you build.’ We must build the closest possible relationship with America, and – yes, a new relationship – but as Europeans, not just as separate nations. That’s why we need a unified foreign policy, a coordinated diplomacy, the foreign policy of a common Europe.”

With many European nations facing increasingly Eurosceptic electorates, his ideas about integration are unlikely to take off, but his remarks may galvanise Europe into more detailed discussions about what military role they can play in Ukraine, including by putting troops on the ground to protect a ceasefire.

The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, urged Europe to remain engaged with Trump, and not to believe he was about to abandon Europe or Ukraine. He said “We are one family” adding the Americans “are right, we are not spending enough”. He said he expected Nato to adopt a new spending target in May to be reached in four or five years’ time with clear milestones, and a possible defence spending target above 3% of GDP. The current target of 2% was not enough, he said.

Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for Europe, took a more optimistic view of US intentions, saying: “There is a very serious intention and determination to end the war in a just way, and that it should be ended in a manner that it does not happen again. We are not only talking about ending the war, but also preventing it happening again.”

Zelesnkyy is trying to fend off a bid by Trump for the US to take control of 50% of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. He rejected the offer after the propsoed contract did not contain the expected pledges to provide US security guarantees in the event of a ceasefire.

Asked about the deal in Munich, Zelenskyy said: “We are still talking. I have had different dialogues.”

The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, offered Zelenskyy the deal during a visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, after Trump suggested the US was owed half a trillion dollars’ worth of Ukraine’s resources in exchange for its assistance.

Zelenskyy is looking for any way to lock the US into a long-term protection of Ukraine from future Russian threats, but knows that in a vulnerable bargaining position, Trump can make demands it will be hard to resist.

The US vice-president, JD Vance, has launched a brutal ideological assault on Europe, accusing its leaders of suppressing free speech, failing to halt illegal migration and running in fear from voters’ true beliefs.

In a chastising speech on Friday that openly questioned whether current European values warranted defence by the US, he painted a picture of European politics infected by media censorship, cancelled elections and political correctness.

Arguing that the true threat to Europe stemmed not from external actors such as Russia or China, but Europe’s own internal retreat from some of its “most fundamental values”, he repeatedly questioned whether the US and Europe any longer had a shared agenda. “What I worry about is the threat from within,” Vance said.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, the vice-president had been expected to address the critical question of the Ukraine war and security differences between Washington and Europe. Instead, he widely skated over these to give a lecture on what he claimed was the continent’s failure to listen to the populist concerns of voters.

Vance said of Donald Trump’s re-election: “There is a new sheriff in town.” He said: “Democracy will not survive if their people’s concerns are deemed invalid or even worse not worth being considered.”

The blistering and confrontational remarks were met with shock at the conference and were later condemned by the EU and Germany, while drawing praise from Russian state television. They signalled a deepening of the transatlantic chasm beyond different perceptions of Russia to an even deeper societal rupture about values and the nature of democracy.

Vance said: “If you are afraid of the voices, the opinions and the conscience that guide your very own people … If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor for that matter is there anything you can do for the American people.”

Accusing European politicians, and the organisers of the Munich Security Conference, of refusing to address issues such as migration, he urged a shocked and largely silent hall in Munich to realise they should not exclude politicians representing populist parties.

In Germany, a firewall has long existed preventing mainstream parties from engaging with the far-right Alternative für Deutschland owing to its Nazi origins. But Vance said there was no room for such barriers.

“People dismissing voters’ concerns, shutting down their media, protects nothing. It is the most surefire way to destroy democracy.”

He described “old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation” to impose censorship.

Many in the hall were swift to say that Vance had still refused to accept that Trump lost the US presidential election in 2020, a refusal that ultimately resulted in a mob of the president’s supporters attacking the US Capitol.

Vance said: “For years we have been told everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values, everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defence of democracy, but when we see European courts cancelling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others we ought to ask ourselves if we are holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard.”

Banning politicians representing populist parties was wrong, he argued. “We do not have to agree with everything or anything people say, but when political leaders represent an important constituency it is incumbent on us to listen.”

After the speech it was confirmed that JD Vance privately met the AfD leader, Alice Weidel, for 30 minutes. In a breach of previous protocol, he had declined the offer to meet the SPD leader and current chancellor, Olaf Scholz.

His attack on mainstream European politicians drew a stern response from German and EU officials. The German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said he could not let the speech go without comment. “If I understood him correctly, he is comparing conditions in parts of Europe with those in authoritarian regimes,” Pistorius said. “That is unacceptable, and it is not the Europe and not the democracy in which I live and am currently campaigning.”

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said allies should be focusing on bigger threats such as Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. “Listening to that speech, they try to pick a fight with us and we don’t want to a pick a fight with our friends,” Kallas said at the Munich event.

Kallas later invited EU foreign ministers to meet on Sunday to discuss Ukraine – and relations with the Trump administration. “The aim of the meeting will be to share information and take stock of the latest contacts with United States administration representatives and with Ukraine at the Munich Security Conference,” said the invitation to the meeting, which was seen by Reuters.

The speech drew effusive praise on Russian state TV, where a correspondent, Asya Emelyanova, said on Rossiya 1: “It was very nice to hear Vance’s very strong speech. It was a public caning, I can’t call it anything else.”

In remarks that will delight the German far right days before elections there, Vance said: “Of all the pressing challenges that the nations represented here face, I believe there is nothing more urgent than mass migration.”

His speech came a day after a 24-year-old Afghan man was arrested in Munich over a car-ramming attack that injured 36 people. Vance seized on the case to reinforce his point. “How many times must we suffer these appalling setbacks before we change course and take our shared civilisation in a new direction?” he asked.

Instead, he claimed, “in Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat”. He listed a string of cases that he claimed were evidence of this, railing against Romania for cancelling presidential elections and Sweden for arresting a man for burning a Qur’an in public. Britain was singled out for arresting a man praying near an abortion clinic.

Attempting to underplay Moscow’s role in the rise of the populist right, he said it was wrong for Russia to buy social media to influence European elections, but “if your democracy can be destroyed by a few thousand dollars of digital media from a foreign country it was not very strong to begin with”.

Before Vance’s speech, the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, accused Trump and tech barons of being willing to destroy democracy. He said: “It is clear that the new American administration holds a worldview that is very different from our own. One that shows no regard for established rules, for partnerships or for the trust that has been built over time. But I am convinced that it is not in the interest of the international community for this worldview to become the dominant paradigm.”

In JD Vance’s confrontational and pugnacious speech at the Munich Security Conference, the vice-president ran through a series of examples to highlight his claims that Europe has gone off the rails. Here, we look at what he said – and whether it stacks up.

United Kingdom

Speaking about “our very dear friends, the United Kingdom”, Vance claimed a “backslide away from conscience rights” had “placed the basic liberties of religious Britons in particular in the crosshairs”.

The British government, he said, had charged Adam Smith-Conner, a physiotherapist and an army veteran, with the “heinous crime of standing 50 metres from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes, not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own”.

Vance claimed that Conner told an “unmoved” law enforcement officer that he was praying for an unborn son that he and a former girlfriend had aborted years before. “Adam was found guilty of breaking the government’s new ‘buffer zones law’, which criminalises silent prayer and other actions that could influence a person’s decision within 200 metres of an abortion facility,” Vance said. “He was sentenced to pay thousands of pounds in legal costs to the prosecution.”

Fact check

Smith-Connor was convicted of breaching a safe zone in October last year, after refusing repeated requests to move away from outside an abortion clinic in Bournemouth in November 2022.

The 51-year-old told the council the day before he would be carrying out a silent vigil as he had on previous occasions. On the day, a community officer spoke to him for an hour and 40 minutes and asked him to leave – but he refused. Smith-Connor was handed a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay more than £9,000 costs after the case was brought by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council.

Smith-Connor is receiving legal support from Alliance Defending Freedom International, an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that states it “champions religious freedom through … advocacy efforts”. ADF International said it would be supporting Smith-Connor to appeal against the decision in July.

Smith-Connor’s case was brought after a public space protection order was introduced outside the Bournemouth clinic in October 2022, which banned activity including protests, harassment and vigils.

October last year saw the introduction of the Public Order Act 2023 in England and Wales, which introduced buffer zones of 150 metres around abortion clinics to stop women being harassed with leaflets, shown pictures of foetuses, or having to pass by vigils.

Scotland

The Scottish government was said to have begun distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay “within so-called safe access zones, warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law”. He went on: “The government urged readers to report any fellow citizens suspected guilty of thought crime in Britain and across Europe.”

Fact check

The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Act, introduced last year, introduced safe access zones within 200 metres of abortion clinics, banning harassing, alarming or distressing actions.

“Silent prayer” is listed among the banned activities to prevent mass silent vigils that have been used by large groups of US anti-abortion protesters such as 40 Days for Life who gather outside clinics to pressure women entering not to have an abortion.

A Conservative US TikToker erroneously claimed that silent prayer at home could break the law in Scotland. However the law states that the actions are banned if they are likely to cause alarm or distress to someone accessing abortion services. Silent prayer in a home which caused no distress and alarm to other would not fall under this category.

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The vice-president’s claim is incorrect. Private prayer at home is not prohibited within safe access zones and no letter has ever suggested it was.”

Romania

Vance told the Munich security conference that a former European commissioner had “sounded delighted” that an “entire election” in Romania had been annulled. Vance added: “He warned that if things don’t go to plan, the very same thing could happen in Germany too … But when we see European courts cancelling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard.”

Fact check

The US vice-president was referring to comments by the former European commissioner Thierry Breton. The former French minister had been speaking after the decision by Romania’s constitutional court in December to annul the early results of the country’s presidential election.

The court had intervened after declassified intelligence documents pointed to what was described as a massive and “highly organised” campaign for the independent candidate Călin Georgescu, on the TikTok platform that was probably orchestrated by a “state actor”. Georgescu has committed to stop all Romanian political and military support for Ukraine if elected.

Commenting on the case, Breton had said: “Let’s keep calm and enforce our laws in Europe when they are at risk of being circumvented … We did it in Romania, and we will obviously do it if necessary in Germany.”

Elon Musk intervened at the time on X, referring to “the staggering absurdity of Thierry Breton as the tyrant of Europe”. Breton responded: “Tyrant of Europe? Wow! But No Elon Musk: the EU has NO mechanism to nullify any election anywhere in EU. Not at all what is said in the video below related only to the application of the [Digital Services Act] and its moderation obligations. Lost in translation… or another fake news?”

Brussels

Vance said that in Brussels “EU Commission commissars” had warned citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest at “the moment they spot what they’ve judged to be “hateful content”. In Germany, he claimed police had carried out “raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online as part of ‘combating misogyny’ on the internet”.

Fact check

Under the Digital Services Act, the European Commission can ask a digital services coordinator in an EU member state to ask a judge to assess an application for a temporary restriction on access within the EU to a large online platform or search engine. The commission does also have the power to bypass the judge-led process in an “urgent situation”. The commission has said that such an extreme measure must “follow the due process” and “would be limited in time”.

Restrictions on services can only be enforced where there is evidence of criminal offences involving threat to people’s life or safety. Should the commission use its enforcement powers, its decisions are subject to judicial redress at the European court of justice.

German police carried out raids last March on the homes of people suspected of posting misogynistic hate speech on the internet, including those advocating rape or sexual assault. Police raided homes and interrogated 45 suspects in 11 states. None of the suspects were detained.

Sweden

Vance said “the government” had “convicted a Christian activist for participating in Qur’an burnings that resulted in his friend’s murder”. He went on: “And as the judge in his case chillingly noted, Sweden’s laws to supposedly protect free expression do not, in fact, grant – and I’m quoting – a ‘free pass’ to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief.”

Fact check

Salwan Najem was given a suspended sentence and a fine by a court over statements he made in connection with four incidents of Qur’an burning in Stockholm. He had carried out the book burning with Salwan Momika, who was subsequently shot dead during a TikTok broadcast last month. Najem, who came to Sweden from Iraq in 1998 and has been a Swedish citizen since June 2005, told the court that his actions were legitimate criticisms of religion protected by Sweden’s freedom of expression laws. Göran Lundahl, the judge in the case, said freedom of expression did not constitute a “free pass to do or say anything”.

Germany

Vance cited the recent attack in Munich as reason for a “new direction”, suggesting the attack was typical. “An asylum seeker, often a young man in his mid-20s, already known to police, rammed a car into a crowd and shatters a community”, he said.

Fact check

German police and prosecutors have said that an Afghan suspect in a car ramming in central Munich that injured at least 36 people was believed to have had an “Islamist” motive and will answer to charges of attempted murder. They have not found links to a jihadist organisation such as the Islamic State group nor any accomplices.

According to the latest EU terrorism situation and trend report from Europol, there were a total of 120 terrorist attacks (98 completed, nine failed and 13 foiled) in seven EU member states in 2023. The highest number of terrorist attacks were perpetrated by separatist terrorists (70, all completed), followed by leftwing and anarchist actors (32, of which 23 completed). There were 14 jihadist terrorist attacks of which five were completed. Two rightwing terrorist attacks were foiled.

Hamas has freed three Israeli hostages from Gaza and Israel has released 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in its custody, the sixth exchange in a fragile month-old ceasefire that almost collapsed earlier this week.

On Saturday morning, Hamas and its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad deployed about 200 fighters to take part in a choreographed handover ceremony in a square in the southern town of Khan Younis.

The three hostages – the Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen, the Israeli-Argentinian Iair Horn and the Israeli-Russian Sasha Troufanov, seized from Nir Oz kibbutz in the 7 October 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war – were forced to read statements from a stage in front of a crowd before they were handed over to the Red Cross.

The stage bore a poster which showed Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa compound, visible through a hole in the wall of a destroyed building, along with the slogan: “No displacement except to Jerusalem”, an apparent reference to Donald Trump’s proposal that Palestinians in Gaza be relocated to other countries.

Saturday’s handover unfolded more smoothly than past releases, and all three men appeared to be in good health. The gaunt appearance of the last group of released captives shocked and angered the Israeli public, and raised fears about the wellbeing of the remaining hostages.

Of the Palestinian prisoners released on Saturday, 333 had been captured or arrested in Gaza since the beginning of the war. They were taken straight to the territory. Thirty-six Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli jails were also released. About two dozen were immediately deported through Egypt to other Arab countries. One was taken to Jerusalem and 10 arrived by bus in Ramallah, the main city in the West Bank and administrative centre of the Palestinian Authority, where a crowd had gathered to welcome them.

The prisoners, who were transferred to private cars and taken home, had all spent more than 20 years in Israeli prisons, according to Abdullah al-Zaghari, the chair of the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

Most of those released on Saturday had been part of the military wing of Fatah, the dominant faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, and had taken part in violent uprisings against Israeli occupation.

“To feel free is indescribable,” said, Ameer Abu Ra’adaha, who spent 32 of his 51 years in jail. He said the prisoners knew there would be an exchange a few days before as the guards conducted raids on the cells and beat some of the inmates.

Abu Ra’adaha said he only found he would be among those released at 6.30am on Saturday. He was told by prison guards who presented the departing prisoners with a T shirt expressing their reluctance to let them go.

The T-shirts, produced on the orders of the head of the prison service, were printed with the words: “We will never forget and we will never forgive.”

Abu Ra’adaha was hailed a hero at a community centre in al-Amariri camp in Ramallah, dressed in a black cap and green jacket with a Palestinian keffiyah around his shoulders. Men queued to embrace him, while the hall filled with teenagers and young boys who had come to catch a glimpse of the emaciated veteran, who looked stunned and exhausted.

“I just want to get married, build a house and live my life,” Abu Ra’adaha said.

Saturday’s exchange marks the latest scheduled step in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which came into effect on 19 January. However, the future of the agreement is still uncertain: under the terms of the 42-day first phase of the ceasefire brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US, negotiations for a second phase had been due to start on 3 February.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, sent negotiators to Doha days later, but the delegation was not mandated to discuss phase two, which is meant to lay out steps towards ending the war.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, whose country is Israel’s top backer and one of the truce mediators, is due to arrive in Israel late on Saturday to discuss the truce’s future and Trump’s depopulation plan with Israeli officials.

Arab leaders have flatly rejected Trump’s proposal, which international law experts say amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Saudi Arabia is hosting delegations from Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday for a summit on the issue, and the Arab League will convene to discuss alternatives on 27 February.

Jannik Sinner has agreed to accept an immediate three-month doping ban from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) – a decision that was quickly met with criticism from inside the game, with Nick Kyrgios calling it “a sad day for tennis”.

Sinner, who successfully defended his Australian Open title last month, tested positive for the anabolic agent clostebol last year which he said had entered his system from a member of his support team through massages and sports therapy.

The men’s world No 1 was initially cleared by an independent tribunal after being provisionally suspended, however Wada had appealed against that decision to the court of arbitration for sport (Cas). On Saturday it emerged that a deal had been reached that would see Sinner banned from 9 February to 4 May – with Wada accepting the Italian player had not deliberately cheated, and allowing him to return before the French Open begins on 25 May.

“Wada accepts that Mr Sinner did not intend to cheat and that his exposure to clostebol did not provide any performance-enhancing benefit and took place without his knowledge as the result of negligence of members of his entourage,” Wada said in a statement. “However, under the Code and by virtue of Cas precedent, an athlete bears responsibility for the entourage’s negligence.”

The case was set to be heard by Cas in April and Sinner was in danger of being banned for up to two years.

“This case had been hanging over me now for nearly a year and the process still had a long time to run with a decision maybe only at the end of the year,” Sinner said in a statement. “I have always accepted that I am responsible for my team and realise Wada’s strict rules are an important protection for the sport I love. On that basis I have accepted Wada’s offer to resolve these proceedings on the basis of a three-month sanction.”

However Kyrgios was among those to raise their eyebrows at the news, writing on X: “Obviously Sinner’s team have done everything in their power to just go ahead and take a three-month ban, no titles lost, no prize money lost. Guilty or not? Sad day for tennis. Fairness in tennis does not exist.”

The British player Liam Broady also expressed his surprise, writing: “Didn’t realise you could reach a settlement regarding a doping ban … Interesting. Back in time for the French Open I guess?”

Meanwhile the former British No 1 Tim Henman also criticised the ban as “too convenient” and warned it would leave fans of the sport with a “pretty sour taste”.

“First and foremost I don’t think in any way he has been trying to cheat at any stage, I don’t believe that,” said the four-time Wimbledon semi-finalist. “However, when I read this statement this morning it just seems a little bit too convenient. When you’re dealing with drugs in sport it very much has to be black and white, it’s binary, it’s positive or negative, you’re banned or you’re not banned.

“When you start reading words like settlement or agreement, it feels like there’s been a negotiation and I don’t think that will sit well with the player cohort and the fans of the sport.”

However, Sinner’s lawyer Jamie Singer said Wada had confirmed the facts determined by the independent tribunal. “It is clear that Jannik had no intent, no knowledge, and gained no competitive advantage. Regrettably, errors made by members of his team led to this situation,” Singer said.

Sinner is the second high-ranked player to accept a doping ban in recent months after women’s world No 2 Iga Swiatek accepted a one-month suspension in November having tested positive for banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ).

On Friday, Sinner had posted a video on Instagram of him training in Doha at the Qatar Open, which starts next week. The earliest he could now return is at his home tournament, the Italian Open in Rome, which starts on 7 May.

The Italian Tennis and Padel Federation president, Angelo Binaghi, declared that while the case was “a shameful injustice”, the ban will mark “the end of a nightmare” for Sinner. Binaghi added that the settlement “demonstrates Jannik’s innocence” and that “all of Italy” will welcome him back at the Italian Open.

In a neoclassical building in Athens on the oldest street of one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the western world, residents gathered last week with much on the minds.

Items on the agenda included noise pollution, congestion and other modern afflictions, but there was one that was met with instant relief: Haris Doukas, the city’s mayor, had decided to set up a taskforce to save Plaka, the ancient quarter at the heart of the capital’s historic centre.

“It was the news we had all wanted to hear,” says Lydia Carras, who presides over The Society for the Environment and Cultural Heritage, Ellet, on whose premises the residents frequently assemble. “Finally, measures are being taken.”

A battle has been launched at the foot of the Acropolis as Greece prepares for another bumper tourist season. For Carras, who founded the heritage society 50 years ago with her late Anglo-Greek shipowner husband, Costas, it’s a battle redolent of older struggles. More than four decades after the “neighbourhood of the gods” survived being overrun by nightclubs and terrace bars, its discovery by developers, avaricious investors and global real estate firms, is again posing an existential threat. On the back of the tourist boom, entire buildings had fallen prey to the short-term rental industry and Airbnb. The few shops that have held out are, like residents, on the brink of extinction.

“Plaka is meant to be protected as it’s so unique,” says Carras. “Thanks to special zoning laws enshrined in presidential decrees it was saved all those years ago. The reality now is that residents are leaving and not only because laws are being violated; the crowds, the noise, the chaos have made their lives unbearable.”

Visitors, she said, did not want to experience “lifeless stage sets” but inhabited areas that felt authentic and real. “This is a small neighbourhood. It was built for residents, not what we’re seeing today.”

In his cavernous city hall office Doukas does not disguise his consternation. The projections of tourist arrivals are nothing short of pleasing – further proof that Athens is no longer a pit stop for travellers en route to the islands. But at record highs the forecasts are also replete with risk.

This year, 10 million visitors, two million more than in 2024, are predicted to descend on the capital, many for city breaks that have made it so popular. If only a fraction head towards Plaka, there will be “intolerable pressure” on its labyrinthine network of alleys and streets.

“Of the 35 million tourists Greece is set to receive, 10 million, nearly equal to Greece’s entire population, will visit Athens,” he says. “For the first time we’ll be Greece’s top destination, but it’s unsustainable. Plaka, in particular, is oversaturated. It can’t go on.”

Few neighbourhoods in Europe has been lived in as continuously as Plaka. Nestled on the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis, its mansions and two-storey buildings, wrapped around the Agora and other archaeological sites, it is an area that has been inhabited since neolithic times. For Greeks the quarter is not just a window on the classical world but an unbreakable link with antiquity.

“When inhabitants leave, places die,” says Giorgos Zafeiriou, an architect who heads Plaka’s residents association. “We’ve seen it time and again.”

The situation had become “desperate” for the district’s diminishing community, long forced into a fragile coexistence with the owners of cafes, restaurants and bars. In summer the influx put extraordinary pressure on Plaka’s antiquated infrastructure, he said, especially its sewage system. Worries about overtourism were such that residents joined the network of Mediterranean Historical Cities to exchange experiences on how to deal with the issues.

“What we’re seeing,” says Zafeiriou, “is a fight for the soul of Plaka. But there’s cause for optimism, too.”

One ray of hope is an upcoming, potentially landmark ruling from the Council of State, Greece’s highest administrative court, on the legality of 16 buildings being converted into Airbnb units in Plaka, given its protected residential status. Brought by Ellet, the action will be pivotal in determining whether land use regulations, enforced to preserve the neighbourhood’s character, have been contravened. If the judges rule in favour a precedent will be set.

“The two presidential degrees establishing Plaka’s particular urban planning rules were specific. Hotels could exist but only in selected spots,” notes Dimitris Melissas, a professor of law representing Ellet at the 5 March hearing. “Here we have buildings acting as clandestine hotels, offering accommodation and breakfast and meals on terraces, where commercial activity is also strictly banned. That we argue is unconstitutional.”

With soaring rents fuelling an incipient housing crisis, the centre-right government recently banned new, short-term rental registrations on online platforms in central Athens.

Passed in January the legislation has raised hopes that hedge funds and developers, who moved in a decade ago, snapping up property at rock bottom prices during Greece’s debt crisis, will also begin to move on.

“Foreign investors see Athens as some kind of El Dorado. They’re reaping the profits, not Greeks,” says Doukas, warning many could end up with stranded assets if they continue to defy the decrees protecting Plaka. “First, they attempted to get around the ban on hotels in the neighbourhood through Airbnb and now they’re trying to get around the ban on Airbnb by advertising properties as ‘serviced apartments’, thanks to an oversight in the new law that clearly needs to be amended.”

The message, he says, is simple. Investors should “forget it” if they want to invest in short-term rentals in the neighbourhood of the gods.

“Go elsewhere! Plaka is our connection with antiquity. It’s integral to the strength of Athens. We’re not going to allow it to become some tourist luna park, an endless shopping mall, denuded of residents and destroyed.”

In a neoclassical building in Athens on the oldest street of one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the western world, residents gathered last week with much on the minds.

Items on the agenda included noise pollution, congestion and other modern afflictions, but there was one that was met with instant relief: Haris Doukas, the city’s mayor, had decided to set up a taskforce to save Plaka, the ancient quarter at the heart of the capital’s historic centre.

“It was the news we had all wanted to hear,” says Lydia Carras, who presides over The Society for the Environment and Cultural Heritage, Ellet, on whose premises the residents frequently assemble. “Finally, measures are being taken.”

A battle has been launched at the foot of the Acropolis as Greece prepares for another bumper tourist season. For Carras, who founded the heritage society 50 years ago with her late Anglo-Greek shipowner husband, Costas, it’s a battle redolent of older struggles. More than four decades after the “neighbourhood of the gods” survived being overrun by nightclubs and terrace bars, its discovery by developers, avaricious investors and global real estate firms, is again posing an existential threat. On the back of the tourist boom, entire buildings had fallen prey to the short-term rental industry and Airbnb. The few shops that have held out are, like residents, on the brink of extinction.

“Plaka is meant to be protected as it’s so unique,” says Carras. “Thanks to special zoning laws enshrined in presidential decrees it was saved all those years ago. The reality now is that residents are leaving and not only because laws are being violated; the crowds, the noise, the chaos have made their lives unbearable.”

Visitors, she said, did not want to experience “lifeless stage sets” but inhabited areas that felt authentic and real. “This is a small neighbourhood. It was built for residents, not what we’re seeing today.”

In his cavernous city hall office Doukas does not disguise his consternation. The projections of tourist arrivals are nothing short of pleasing – further proof that Athens is no longer a pit stop for travellers en route to the islands. But at record highs the forecasts are also replete with risk.

This year, 10 million visitors, two million more than in 2024, are predicted to descend on the capital, many for city breaks that have made it so popular. If only a fraction head towards Plaka, there will be “intolerable pressure” on its labyrinthine network of alleys and streets.

“Of the 35 million tourists Greece is set to receive, 10 million, nearly equal to Greece’s entire population, will visit Athens,” he says. “For the first time we’ll be Greece’s top destination, but it’s unsustainable. Plaka, in particular, is oversaturated. It can’t go on.”

Few neighbourhoods in Europe has been lived in as continuously as Plaka. Nestled on the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis, its mansions and two-storey buildings, wrapped around the Agora and other archaeological sites, it is an area that has been inhabited since neolithic times. For Greeks the quarter is not just a window on the classical world but an unbreakable link with antiquity.

“When inhabitants leave, places die,” says Giorgos Zafeiriou, an architect who heads Plaka’s residents association. “We’ve seen it time and again.”

The situation had become “desperate” for the district’s diminishing community, long forced into a fragile coexistence with the owners of cafes, restaurants and bars. In summer the influx put extraordinary pressure on Plaka’s antiquated infrastructure, he said, especially its sewage system. Worries about overtourism were such that residents joined the network of Mediterranean Historical Cities to exchange experiences on how to deal with the issues.

“What we’re seeing,” says Zafeiriou, “is a fight for the soul of Plaka. But there’s cause for optimism, too.”

One ray of hope is an upcoming, potentially landmark ruling from the Council of State, Greece’s highest administrative court, on the legality of 16 buildings being converted into Airbnb units in Plaka, given its protected residential status. Brought by Ellet, the action will be pivotal in determining whether land use regulations, enforced to preserve the neighbourhood’s character, have been contravened. If the judges rule in favour a precedent will be set.

“The two presidential degrees establishing Plaka’s particular urban planning rules were specific. Hotels could exist but only in selected spots,” notes Dimitris Melissas, a professor of law representing Ellet at the 5 March hearing. “Here we have buildings acting as clandestine hotels, offering accommodation and breakfast and meals on terraces, where commercial activity is also strictly banned. That we argue is unconstitutional.”

With soaring rents fuelling an incipient housing crisis, the centre-right government recently banned new, short-term rental registrations on online platforms in central Athens.

Passed in January the legislation has raised hopes that hedge funds and developers, who moved in a decade ago, snapping up property at rock bottom prices during Greece’s debt crisis, will also begin to move on.

“Foreign investors see Athens as some kind of El Dorado. They’re reaping the profits, not Greeks,” says Doukas, warning many could end up with stranded assets if they continue to defy the decrees protecting Plaka. “First, they attempted to get around the ban on hotels in the neighbourhood through Airbnb and now they’re trying to get around the ban on Airbnb by advertising properties as ‘serviced apartments’, thanks to an oversight in the new law that clearly needs to be amended.”

The message, he says, is simple. Investors should “forget it” if they want to invest in short-term rentals in the neighbourhood of the gods.

“Go elsewhere! Plaka is our connection with antiquity. It’s integral to the strength of Athens. We’re not going to allow it to become some tourist luna park, an endless shopping mall, denuded of residents and destroyed.”

The wildlife charity WWF has been working to support the trade in polar bear fur at the same time as using images of the bears to raise money, it can be revealed.

Polar bears are severely affected by the loss of Arctic sea ice, which makes seeking prey harder and forces the bears to use more energy. In some regions, polar bears are showing signs of declining physical condition, having fewer cubs, and dying younger.

Despite their endangered status, polar bears are hunted commercially in Canada, the only country that still allows the practice after it was banned by Russia, Greenland, the US and Norway. An annual average of 300–400 skins are exported, primarily to China, where a full pelt sells for an average of $60,000 (£48,000) and is often used for luxury clothing or as a rug.

It is estimated that there are between 22,000 and 31,000 polar bears left in Canada, meaning the trade accounts for the deaths of 1-2% of the country’s polar bear population every year.

A two-year investigation has found that WWF has helped facilitate the international commercial trade in polar bear furs as part of its support for the policy of sustainable utilisation. The idea is that by licensing the exploitation of a small number of animals for economic purposes – such as for fur or trophy-hunting – the status of the species overall will be improved.

WWF has made clear statements about its positionregarding trophy-hunting and the trade in elephant ivory. It has said it is “not opposed to hunting programmes that present no threat to the survival of threatened species and, where such species are involved, are part of a demonstrated conservation and management strategy that is scientifically based, properly managed, and strictly enforced, with revenues and benefits going back into conservation and local communities”.

At the Convention of the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), the global organisation that regulates the trade in endangered species, WWF has lobbied consistently for the continuation of the commercial Canadian polar bear fur trade. In its position statement, it acknowledged there may be a significant decline in the polar bear population in the coming decades, but said trade “is not a significant threat to the species [though there are a] number of polar bear populations in Canada where harvest may be unsustainable”.

WWF lobbied against granting full protection to polar bears in 2010 and 2013 at Cites meetings when the US, supported by Russia, proposed a ban on the international commercial trade of polar bear skins.

Both times WWF recommended that parties should not vote for a full ban, arguing that polar bears had not yet met the criteria for this.

This view persists. When asked at the Cites meeting in Panama in 2022 whether WWF would recommend better protection in the forthcoming decade, Colman O’Criodain, WWF International’s policy manager for wildlife and adviser to WWF’s Arctic programme, said he “[did not] think so in terms of the numeric criteria”.

WWF said in a 2013 statement: “If, at some stage in the future, polar bear populations become so diminished by climate change and habitat loss, and/or if international trade presents a greater threat, we would want to revisit the Cites listing issue. But we’re not at that point.”

WWF has also claimed a ban on the international commercial trade would damage the livelihoods of Indigenous communities.

However, this is contentious. Robert Thompson, an Iñupiat resident and polar bear guide from Kaktovik, Alaska, said: “We didn’t sell these animals for 10,000 years and that’s why they are still here – we didn’t have a commercial need.”

Thompson said a better income could be made without killing polar bears. “There can be a good income by taking people to view the animals – and that is sustainable,” he said. “I think if we just shot the bears to have money, pretty soon we wouldn’t have any more bears and then that’s the end of it.”

At both Cites meetings the proposal failed to reach the two-thirds majority required for a ban on the trade.

Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud, a former director of WWF who worked for the charity for 27 years, said: “The WWF name, certainly from my experience, had a lot of leverage. If I approached people, they wanted to hear what I had to say … WWF has an influence, and it still has an influence.

“I think the public will be even more than surprised, perhaps shocked. I know that it’s the sort of thing that I have difficulty getting my head around.”

WWF has also lobbied against granting full protection under Cites to other animals including elephants, hippos, giraffes and rhinos. This was particularly evident at the 2022 Cites meeting, where WWF lobbied successfully for changing the listing of Namibia’s white rhino population from full protection under appendix I to the less restrictive appendix II.

The majority of wildlife protection organisations do not support WWF’s position, and at the past four Cites meetings a coalition of about 80 NGOs opposed WWF’s recommendations.

WWF told the Guardian that an appendix I listing of polar bears would not have prevented trophy hunting. “Under appendix II … commercial trade, in skins for example, is also allowed and the Inuit in Canada avail of this. For this reason, on both occasions when the appendix I listing was proposed, Inuit representatives spoke passionately against it. Rejection of the proposal was also recommended by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, [the NGO] Traffic, the Pew Environment Group and the Cites secretariat.”

The spokesperson said that after the 2013 debate the Cites committee had looked at the sustainability of the trade: “Canada submitted its case to the following meeting in 2015 and the committee concluded, by consensus, that the trade was sustainable.”

A British couple who have been detained in Iran have been named by their family as Craig and Lindsay Foreman.

The couple, in their early 50s, had only planned on being in Iran for five days as part of a motorbike trip across the world.

The family spoke of their concern at the “distressing situation” facing the Foremans, who are being held in Kerman, Iran.

“This unexpected turn of events has caused significant concern for our entire family, and we are deeply focused on ensuring their safety and wellbeing during this trying time,” they said in a statement.

“We are actively engaging with the British government and relevant authorities, working diligently to navigate the complexities of this matter. The family are united in our determination to secure their safe return.”

The two British nationals were arrested in Iran over security allegations, according to Iranian state media. Earlier this week, state media published photographs purportedly showing the UK ambassador, Hugo Shorter, meeting the couple, whom the country has called “national security” suspects.

The published photo shows that a meeting on Wednesday was held in the presence of the Kerman prosecutor, Mehdi Bakhshi, and Kerman governor’s deputy for security and law enforcement, Rahman Jalal.

In a statement issued via the UK Foreign Office, the family asked for privacy, saying “the emotional burden of this situation weighs heavily on us … Thank you for your understanding, compassion, and continued support.”

A Foreign Office spokesperson earlier said: “We are providing consular assistance to two British nationals detained in Iran and are in contact with the local authorities.”

The couple were heading for Australia, having crossed into Iran from Armenia on 30 December, according to social media posts. Lindsay Foreman was carrying out a research project as part of the journey, asking people what constitutes a good life.

The couple had shared a number of updates from Iran, and had been planning to enter Pakistan next. “To put your minds at rest, we are having the most amazing time in Iran,” they posted on Facebook on 3 January.

Lindsay Foreman posted a picture of herself on Instagram on 3 January meeting a cleric in the town of Isfahan. Under it she wrote: “Travel continues to teach me that humanity’s core is shared: kindness, humility, and respect for one another.”

On Facebook on the same day, she wrote: “Despite differences in culture, language, and traditions, we’ve seen something beautifully universal: kindness, humour, hospitality – and a shared love of good food!”

The UK and other European powers are under pressure from Tehran to distance themselves from the economic sanctions recently reimposed on Iran.

Iran secured the release by Italy of an Iranian exporter, Mohammad Abedini, wanted by the US for allegedly supplying goods used in a drone attack on US soldiers in Jordan. Abedini had been apprehended in Milan on a US warrant. Three days later Iran arrested the Italian reporter Cecilia Sala in Tehran, who was in the country on a journalist’s visa.

After Sala had spent three weeks in an Iranian jail, the government of Giorgia Meloni released Abedini, leading to Sala’s release.

The Foreign Office currently advises British nationals to avoid all travel to Iran.

“British and British-Iranian dual nationals are at significant risk of arrest, questioning or detention,” the advice says. “Having a British passport or connections to the UK can be reason enough for the Iranian authorities to detain you.”

A man who survived being drugged and robbed of more than $134,000 by a woman linked to the death of a television sports journalist covering the recent Super Bowl in New Orleans said he wants “to see her go to jail for as long as she can” after she was let off with probation in his case.

David Butler, 52, also said he had tried to warn both the public and the courthouse that handled his case against Danette Colbert that she might “end up killing someone” if left unchecked.

But, with authorities now working to confirm whether she fatally drugged reporter Adan Manzano before he was found dead and robbed in his hotel near New Orleans, he has been left to rue that those attempted admonitions were, evidently, fruitless.

“I believe she’s very dangerous,” Butler said in an interview. “I want to see her locked up for the rest of her life” if she killed Manzano, he added, though she could still be bound for prison in connection with probation violations.

Butler’s retelling of his costly encounter with Colbert during a night out on New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street in the fall of 2021 came less than two weeks after Manzano’s death.

Surveillance camera images released by police showed Manzano and Colbert together on Bourbon Street before they walked into his room at a hotel near New Orleans’s airport in Kenner, Louisiana, during the early morning of 5 February. Colbert eventually left alone. Hotel staff found Manzano dead after he missed a meeting about his work for the Spanish-language television channel Telemundo Kansas City, which would be chronicling that city’s football team, the Chiefs, playing the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome on 9 February.

Investigators later arrested Colbert, 48, on allegations that she had stolen the credit card Manzano had used to check in to his hotel along with his cellphone. They also began theorizing that Colbert may have drugged Manzano, 27, before his death because of news stories documenting allegations that she had drugged and robbed men in Las Vegas, though the results of tests showing which substances may have been in the late reporter’s body remained pending Friday.

Those test results could lead to Colbert being charged directly with Manzano’s death. Nonetheless, in the meantime, international news coverage of Manzano’s death prompted Butler to come forward in the media and describe what he endured when he, too, had met Colbert on Bourbon.

He said he had been in the city from out of town renovating a property he owns and had gone out to Bourbon Street to unwind on the evening of 5 November 2021. Late into the night, Colbert and another woman accompanied Butler into a bar, where they shared drinks. He “started feeling woozy” unusually quickly, as police later wrote in a sworn statement filed in court, and he decided to head home.

As he climbed into a cab, Colbert got in and said: “Let me get you home safe.” Then she accompanied him to the property he was renovating, court documents said. Butler’s last recollection of the night was walking into the home. His next memory was being woken by his leasing agent and realizing that his gold ring, watch, cellphone and wallet were gone.

More than $80,000 in cryptocurrency that he had been counting on for his retirement was missing, too. His credit card had been used to charge thousands of dollars at retailers.

Because he was focused on finding out who had robbed him, Butler said he did not go to the hospital to see what may have been put in his drink.

Police said they eventually identified Colbert as Butler’s thief because she had been associated with the name of the digital cloud account to which his crypto savings was transferred: “QueenTX100.” Authorities charged her with crimes including theft and fraud, at one point publishing a news release about the case.

Butler shared that release on social media, adding: “She is going to end up killing someone.”

Additionally, after a Reddit post describing a drugging and robbery caught his attention, Butler said he got in touch with two other men who described similarly being victimized by Colbert. Both men filed reports with police in New Orleans, as NBC News reported on Saturday, but neither evidently led anywhere.

Colbert was eventually convicted at trial in Butler’s case. Butler hoped she would receive a stiff punishment: not only had he submitted a statement to the court outlining how Colbert’s actions had “devastated [his] life”, but also, in early 2022, she had been accused of stealing $100,000 in cash, jewelry, upscale luggage and casino chips from the Las Vegas hotel room of another man whom she had allegedly drugged.

Furthermore, while out on bond in the Las Vegas case, she had allegedly drugged another man there and stolen his $60,000 watch, casino chips and credit cards after he invited her to his hotel room.

Prosecutors in Las Vegas ultimately dismissed both of those cases, according to court records. However, a third case from 2022 in Las Vegas remained unresolved, centering on allegations that she had driven through a school area at nearly 100mph, landing her charges of speeding, among other offenses.

Butler did not see Colbert get the punishment he had hoped for. She was put on probation for five years and ordered to pay $50,000 in restitution – at monthly payments of $834 for the duration of her sentence.

According to Butler, Colbert has not paid him a cent of restitution. He submitted a letter to the courthouse where Colbert was convicted that asked: “Why was someone with such a history of endangering lives given yet another chance? If someone dies due to her actions in the future, their blood will undeniably be on the hands of those who allowed her to escape real accountability today.”

It was a little more than two months after Butler sent his letter that Manzano – a widowed father of a toddler – was found dead, and Colbert was arrested again. Among her numerous other legal issues confronting her in various jurisdictions, prosecutors in Butler’s case by Monday had filed a motion to revoke Colbert’s probation and send her to prison.

Butler on Friday said all he could hope for now would be for his case and Colbert’s to spark a meaningful dialogue about the need for people with histories like hers to face substantial consequences before it’s too late.

“I was afraid she would strike again and again and again,” Butler said. “And … I guess I would like to see some reform.”

The government has rushed forward plans for a £2.5bn investment in the UK steel industry after Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminium into the US.

The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will publish a green paper entitled Plan for Steel on Sunday – several weeks before schedule – in a sign of how Trump’s tariffs are sending shock waves through a UK government desperate to kickstart economic growth.

Speaking to the Observer, Reynolds said that, even before Trump’s return to the White House, the government was determined to bolster and expand the UK steel industry, but the US president’s actions had made the need to act more urgent. “The context, both at home and abroad, is behind the sense of urgency that we are demonstrating by bringing forward publication of the strategy.”

Referring to the Trump tariffs, he added: “This is clearly a further challenge but it makes bringing forward the strategy even more important.”

The UK has so far refused to join the EU and Canada in threatening immediate retaliation if the US pushes ahead and imposes the 25% import taxes next month. Britain exports about 209,000 tonnes of steel to the US every year and imports about 16,000, making it the second-biggest export market after the EU.

“It is in neither of our interests to have these tariffs,” said Reynolds, who said he remains optimistic that talks with US officials could lead to a resolution before serious damage is done.

The director general of industry body UK Steel, Gareth Stace, said last week that the US action would stifle UK exports and damage Britain’s balance of trade at a time when global protectionism was on the rise.

“The US is our second-largest export market after the EU, and this move threatens more than £400m of steel exports [each year],” Stace said.

In its election manifesto, the then Labour opposition announced plans to spend £2.5bn in order to “rebuild the UK steel industry”. The money would sit alongside a separate £500m package for Tata Steel to part-fund new steel production at Port Talbot in south Wales.

Now ministers intend to turbocharge decisions on how that money can best be used to strengthen the steel industry, with the emphasis being on government co-financing of innovative projects led by the private sector. Part of the aim is to ensure that a severely weakened UK steel industry is healthy enough to act as primary supplier in key infrastructure projects in this country that lie at the heart of the government’s drive for growth.

Last week, Heathrow delivered welcome news to British Steel, and the industry nationwide, by pledging to use UK-made steel in its largest-ever investment programme, and indicated it would also do so if and when the controversial proposal for a third runway gets the official go-ahead.

Heathrow’s plans that would use UK steel include the main new terminal’s infrastructure, with investment in the capacity of Terminal 2 and Terminal 5.

At prime minister’s question’s on Wednesday, the Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, told Keir Starmer that the UK needed to hit back at Trump more aggressively. “Sitting back and hoping Trump won’t hurt us just isn’t going to work,” Davey said, adding that the UK needed to negotiate “from a position of strength”.

Starmer responded, saying the UK response would involve a “level-headed assessment of the implications”. He added: “But we will always put our national interest first and steelworkers first.”

The green paper will look at the long-term issues facing the industry, such as high energy costs, international turmoil – including the effects of tariffs – and scrap metal recycling, with the aim of protecting jobs and living standards in the UK’s steel-producing heartlands.

Some of the £2.5bn investment is expected to be spent on electric arc furnaces, which can heat steel up to high temperatures without burning fossil fuels.

Reynolds said: “The UK steel industry has a long-term future under this government. We said that during the election, and we are delivering on it now.”

The government is to face questions about Prince Andrew and other members of the royal family’s use of public money after talks to overcome restrictions on scrutinising the monarchy in parliament.

Labour peer George Foulkes has had the first of what he intends to be a number of questions about Andrew accepted, after “helpful” discussions last week with the deputy speaker in the House of Lords, John Gardiner. Their talks came after Lord Foulkes said recently that he had been refused permission to table a question ­proposing a ­public register of royal interests. He has called for greater scrutiny of the royals, including in parliament.

Parliament’s standing orders and Erskine May, the “bible” of procedure, prevent scrutiny at Westminster of the conduct of members of the royal family. Erskine May states: “No question can be put which brings the name of the sovereign or the influence of the crown directly before parliament, or which casts reflections upon the sovereign or the royal family.”

Foulkes, 83, has argued that there should be changes to the rules to allow parliament to go beyond the current limit of questions, mainly about the cost to the taxpayer of royal residences and events attended by the royals, particularly in the light of continuing concerns over the conduct of Andrew. Lord Gardiner does not appear to have gone that far but has helped Foulkes navigate the restrictions, which also include the requirement that parliamentary questions should relate to matters of government responsibility.

Foulkes has asked ministers to publish details of any briefings provided to the Duke of York by the Ministry of Defence after he left the Royal Navy and during his tenure as the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment from 2001 until 2011. Foulkes has asked for details on the nature of the briefings, when they ceased and the reasons for their continuation post-service.

“There are some suggestions he may have had sensitive briefings and then used the information while talking to other people,” Foulkes said.

He has also tabled a question asking the government to publish annual figures for the cost of royal security and plans further questions about the use of taxpayers’ money by the royal family.

Foulkes, who is awaiting written replies from ministers, said there has been less scrutiny and debate in parliament about the cost of the royals since the civil list was replaced in 2012 by the sovereign grant, which is automatically benchmarked to the equivalent of 12% of the profits of the crown estate, an independent business that hands all its profits to the Treasury.

In the Commons, there has been no opportunity for MPs to discuss concerns about the duke’s activities. MPs have proved unable or unwilling to circumvent Erskine May, and the Commons public accounts committee chaired by the Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown has not made investigating the duke’s taxpayer-funded activities a priority.